Isn't Family Wonderful?
by black polish and thick liner
Summary: Riley and his little sister Arley have always had a tight bond. So when Riley decides to make Arley a part of The Othersiders, she couldn't be happier. But when the producers decide they don't want Arley on the team, that bond will be put to the test.
1. Dumped

I quietly opened the door to my brother's room. He was facing away from me, reading a magazine. I grinned. He was in a perfect position. I silently walked into his room, my padded running socks that I wear for track making my footsteps silent against the carpet. Once I was four inches away from his ear, I drew a big breath into my lungs.

"RILEY!" I shouted.

He jumped and put his hand over his hear. "Quit doing that!" he shouted, and playfully yanked a fistful of my reddish-gold hair.

"Ow!" I squealed (even though it didn't really hurt that much) and softly punched him in the shoulder before running downstairs into the dining room, Riley hot on my trail.

My mother sighed and gave a small smile as she put two glasses of water in me and Riley's spots on the table. "Arley, I asked you to tell your brother that dinner was ready, not make him chase you down here."

"Aw, come on, Mom," Riley said. "Me and Ar were just goofing off."

My name's Arley, I'm fourteen, and Riley Litman is my older brother. He's also my best friend. You know how on TV siblings don't really get along? How they argue constantly and always seem to hate each other's guts? Well, me and Riley aren't like that. We're best friends, and I'm friends with his friends, even though that never happens on TV either.

Dinner that night was a taco ring, which is basically crescent rolls stuffed with taco meat in the shape of a ring. It's really good, but even better with salsa. Dad agrees with me, but Mom and Riley don't see our point of view.

"How can that be good without any toppings on it?" I asked, pointing to Mom's plain piece of taco ring.

"How can that be good _with _toppings on it?" Riley countered. "I've never understood your addiction to dump salsa on everything."

I sighed. "Remind me to never take you to Taco Bell. They never serve anything plain. And I do _not_ dump salsa on everything."

"Yes you do," he insisted.

"No I don't," I argued. "Have you ever seen me dump salsa on pancakes?"

Dad cleared his throat. "Kids, listen up."

"What is it?" Riley asked.

Mom sighed. "Riley, I'm sorry to do this to you, but we're going on a business trip tomorrow night and need you to stay home with Arley."

"But...tomorrow night's the investigation," he said. "We're going to an insane asylum in Alameda."

"Then you'll have to take Arley with you."

Take me on an investigation? In an insane asylum? Immediately my heart sped up. I'd always wanted to be a part of Riley's team, but me being on the team would make an even number of people. And that meant that there could be a tie on the whole "haunted or not" verdict. Then it technically wouldn't be either, because the team wouldn't be able to reach a decision. I understood the reasoning, but that didn't mean I was happy about it.

"Mom, Dad, you can't be serious," he said, disbelief written all over his face.

"We are," Dad said sternly. "I'm sorry, son, but you'll have to take Arley. How long does it take to get to a location? An hour? And then how long does the investigation last? Two, three hours? And then you have to drive home for the other hour. That's four to five hours that she'd be home alone, and we don't want her alone for so long."

Riley sighed, his voice laced with irritation. "Fine."

I sort of felt bad. Sure, me and Riley were close, but ghost hunting was mainly his thing, not mine. And as badly as I wanted to be a part of it, I'd have felt way better if he had actually wanted me there. It was funny; I was getting my wish fulfilled and I felt guilty. Stupid teenage hormones.


	2. Make Up

I managed to avoid Riley for an hour. It was stupid of me, but I actually locked the door to my room and actually got on Google Chat, hoping my best friend, Willie, was on. She's on the middle school swim team, and she spends almost every second of her spare time goofing around or practicing with her teammates. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that girl was half mermaid-you can't get that girl away from the pool.

But today she was. On Google Chat, I mean. I almost couldn't believe it until she sent me a message.

swimmerchick2256: hola chica :)

misfit001: hey willie

swimmerchick2256: whats wrong????

misfit001: nothing

swimmerchick2256: tell me the truth!

misfit001: i am!

swimmerchick2256: no ur not! TELL ME THE TRUTH, DAG NAB YOU!!!!!! :(

One of the best things about Willie is also one of the worst things: she always knows when she's being lied to. Even on Google Chat. Seriously. One time we were both goofing off on her MySpace, and some psycho sent her a message praising her on her performance in a swim meet she had swam in, and she said, "You're lying! The only way you know I like swimming is because it's in my profile. You know about how I did because you read my blog that I have on a website listed on my profile. You don't even go to our school!" After that, the guy logged off, which made me assume Willie was right. I'm telling you, she's freaky.

misfit001: there really is no point lying to you is there?

swimmerchick2256: no. none at all. u should know that from the myspace psycho incident.

misfit001: fine. i'll tell you. my rents r out on a business trip 2morrow & riley has to take me on an investigation.

swimmerchick2256: but i thought that was what you always wanted for a really long time.

misfit001: it is but riley's being forced to take me so i feel guilty for being dumped on him.

swimmerchick2256: so don't feel bad cuz ur being dumped on him. he's ur brother and he should understand that it's not ur fault ur rents r forcing him to take u.

misfit001: okay. thank u willie :)

swimmerchick2256: no problem chica :) hey i gtg swim practice starts in half an hour

Willie signed off then, so I went downstairs into the living room. There was nothing good on TV, so I looked around the DVD cabinet for a while. But there was nothing I was in the mood to watch, so I just put in a random tape and hoped it was something good. And I also hoped Riley wouldn't walk in if it wasn't good. Luckily, it was. Something good, I mean. It was a sci fi movie called _Push_. I LOVE that movie. I've seen it nineteen times. But that's not so bad compared to Willie, who's seen _Eragon_ thirty-two times.

Anyway, I was really hoping to get through at least one-fifth of the movie without someone walking in, but someone did, and that someone was Riley. He'd walked in on one of my favorite parts, too-the part where Cassie and Nick are in the fish market and the Bleeders show up to try to kill them.

"Arley, you are for sure addicted to this movie," he declared as he plopped himself down next to me.

I smiled, watching him out of the corner of my eyes. He didn't look mad, which was good, but I couldn't quite read his facial expression. "Yeah, I know," I said.

"You okay?" he asked.

I glanced at him, a bit surprised. "Yeah. Why?"

"You looked kinda upset at dinner."

Heat rose in my cheeks and I immediately cursed my stupid teenage hormones for making things like blush exist. "Only cause I thought _you_ were upset."

"Me?" his voice sounded truly shocked. "Why would I be upset?"

"Because it's annoying to have a tag-along."

"Yes, but you're not a tag-along. You're my little sister who's being forced to go to an old insane asylum in Alameda."

"I'm not being _forced_ if I'm happy to go," I mumbled.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Then came something came to me that I hadn't thought of before: how was I going to explain to Riley's friends why I was coming with them?


	3. Sam's Big Head

Holy crap, holy crap, holy freaking crap.

How was I going to explain why I was coming with them? Sure, we were sort-of friends, but the longest conversation I'd ever had with Jackie, Sam, and Zack, was this:

Me: "Where you guys going tonight?"

Someone on the team: "We're going to..." (Insert location there.)

Me: "Cool. That sounds scary."

Someone on the team: "It is. The reports are..." (Insert reports there.)

Me: "Well, have fun you guys."

Someone on the team: "We will. See ya later, Arley."

So obviously I wasn't sure what to say to them. I glanced at Riley, but he just gave me a reassuring smile that didn't really reassure me at all whatsoever. I paused the movie, then walked upstairs with him.

"Hey KC," Riley said as he opened the door.

I've known KC since I was four when she and Riley had the same teacher in kindergarten. Those two would always be talking to each other every time Mom picked him up from kindergarten, and in the car Riley would talk about her. I couldn't tease him with actual words back then, so what I did was make kissy noises all the way home. Riley would always get mad at me for it, too. I told Riley about it a couple months ago when he first started the team, and he just stared at me with a how-in-the-heck-can-she-remember-that-far-back-when-_I_-don't-even-remember-that-far-back expression. In other words, I've known KC for a long, long, time, and she's almost like a sister to me.

"Hey Riley, Arley," KC replied, smiling.

"Hi KC," I said.

The three of us settled onto the couch to watch some TV while we waited for everyone else to show up. Yeah, yeah, not the most active way to wait for people, but oh well. What are ya gonna do?

Zack was the next person to show up. Now the couch was filled to its maximum amount of people. Unfortunately, Sam did not exactly grasp this concept and tried to squeeze between me and Riley. When Riley shoved him off, he plopped himself down on my lap.

"Sam," I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah?"

"You're blocking the TV with your big head."

Okay, Sam's head isn't really big, but I wanted a clear view of the TV and his head was blocking it. Besides, it was the first thing I could come up with.

"My head isn't big," he argued.

"Doesn't change the fact it's blocking my view."

He turned around and smirked at me. "If you think that'll make me move it you're wrong."

I glared at him and raised my right eyebrow. "I think I can get you to move it."

"Oh yeah? How?"

Jackie opened the door then. "Hey, I'm here, sorry I got here last." She then saw Sam sitting on me and said, "Sam, what are you sitting on?"

"Arley," he replied, as if it was no big thing.

Riley raised his left eyebrow slightly. "Why don't we just get to the basement now."

Sam hopped off me and I followed them to the basement, a little bit nervous about actually going on an investigation. And, of course, how exactly to tell them I was even going on the investigation.

"Arley, why're you coming down?" Jackie asked when we were all in the basement.

"Our parents are going on a business trip and don't want me to be home alone for a long time," I explained. "So I'm being dumped on you guys. Sorry."

Okay, that went better than expected.

"It's cool," Zack said, and shrugged. "An extra person won't hurt."

"And no offense, but when we make a verdict tomorrow, your vote won't count," Riley said to me. "Sorry."

"It's okay." I smiled. "Let's get going.


	4. The Green Door

**I think it'd be cool if I made this chapter an "interactive chapter" so to speak. You can play along with the game that comes up in the chapter and see if you can figure it out. If people decide they like this stuff, I'll make more chapters like this one. Good luck :) **

"So, does anybody wanna play the Green Door game?" I asked.

I saw Riley give a faint smile in the rear view mirror. He'd taught me this game four years ago. Back then, he'd been a smart-alecky, know-it-all twelve-year-old boy with an extremely dumb (or so in his head) ten-year-old sister. I couldn't figure the game out. I begged Riley to tell me the secret rule of the game for almost two weeks before I squeezed a hint or two out of him. Then I felt even more stupid for not figuring out the rule by myself a long time ago.

"What's the Green Door game?" Jackie asked.

KC smiled. She knew this game too.

"Basically, there's a certain rule you have to follow to get to the Green Door, and I'll give you examples on what the rule is," I explained. "When you think you know the rule, come up with an original example and I'll tell you if you have it right or wrong."

"Sounds easy," Zack said.

I smiled. "It's not. KC, you wanna help me with examples?"

"Sure."

"Okay." I drummed my fingers against my chin before thinking of a couple. "You can bring yellow, but not blue. You can bring noodles, but not pasta."

"Aren't noodles and pasta the same thing?" Sam asked.

"There's a difference," I argued. "So...you can bring..." I had to think for a little longer before I came up with a good one. "You can bring Emmett but not Jasper." I grinned sheepishly, then said, "Sorry. I _had_ to put in the Twilight reference. It was the first thing I thought of."

KC rolled her eyes. "Let me think of one." She frowned as she tried to remember an example that Riley had given her when he taught her the game. Then her eyes brightened and said, "Here's one we can relate to: you can bring an apparition, but not a ghost."

"Once again, _same thing_," Sam said, his eyes narrowing a bit.

"Not exactly," KC nearly sang.

"Now one that applies to me," I insisted. "You can bring reddish hair, but not red hair."

I saw Jackie stare at Sam and Zack with a this-game-makes-absolutely-no-sense-at-all-and-why-did-we-even-agree-to-play-it-in-the-first-place expression on her face.

I smiled. Confusing them was a lot of fun; now I could relate to my once-twelve-year-old brother.

The game went on like that. You can bring a princess, but not a prince. You can yell, but not shout. You can bring a command, but not an order. They just got more and more confused, and the next time I checked my watch we were at least an hour into the drive. So all KC and I had to do was think of another hours' worth of examples and everybody would be confused by the time we arrived at the asylum.

They were. I had written down all the things they were allowed to bring to the Green Door, hoping it'd help them. After all, spelling was important to this game; you had to look carefully to see the one thing they had in common. Zack figured it out, and now Jackie and Sam were arguing about what it could possibly be.

"Guys," Riley shouted over the noise, "we're here."

Amazingly, they shut up immediately and looked at the old asylum. It was creepy, but yet I couldn't wait to get inside. Then a whole pack of freaking butterflies started swarming around on the inside of my stomach as I realized I was actually going to investigate _an insane asylum with Riley, Sam, Jackie, KC, and Zack. _This was going to be SO awesome.

And, of course, Jackie and Sam still didn't know the rule to get to the Green Door.

**If you didn't figure out the rule and you're dying to know, don't sweat it. I'll tell you the rule next chapter, I promise. No, really. I PROMISE.**


	5. Start of Something Freaky

**Okay, in this chapter there's a small religious bit. I just thought I'd say it beforehand, cause I know some people don't like that stuff. Well, get over it and don't say I didn't warn you.**

Riley opened the door to the old asylum. I held a voice recorder in my hand, the power turned on. Some people say that sometimes you can hear a loud scream when you walk into the door, and it had been Zack's idea to have a voice recorder on when we walked in.

Turns out we didn't need it.

"I just heard a scream come from down there," Jackie said, pointing down a long hallway that looked like horror movie perfection. "Did you guys hear it?"

I shook my head, managing to slap myself in the face with my hair as I did so. "No."

Everyone else agreed; they'd heard nothing.

"Weird," Sam said, and we continued to walk around in hopes of finding a base camp.

After a few minutes, we set up base camp. Riley, Jackie, Zack, and KC each took a camera and went to set it up, leaving me alone with Sam.

"Nervous?" he asked, smiling a bit.

I held up my hand and shook it from side to side. "Sorta. I'm excited, but I'm not sure exactly what to do on a sweep."

"I can go with you, if you want," he offered. "We might be able to go to the fifth room on the second floor."

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Sam."

As I waited for someone to set up a camera, I thought a prayer: _Jesus, it is in Your precious name that I ask for Your protection tonight as we investigate this really creepy place. Please keep any demons or evil spirits away, and please let no one get hurt tonight. Thank you. Amen._

What? Praying can't possibly hurt anyone except for spirits that I prayed to be kept away. Besides, I do this every time Riley goes on an investigation. Usually he brought his phone with him and he texted me when he got to a location. Then I'd pray like I just did-once again, what would it hurt? If I'm wrong about the praying (and I don't think I am), then I wasted a few seconds of my time. If I'm right, then I saved me and everyone else a lot of problems down the road.

"Arley," Sam said. "Tell me the dang rule already. I won't tell Jackie."

I smiled. "You can take anything that has double letters. That's the rule."

A look of shock crossed his face. "How is that the rule?"

"I told you spelling was important," I reminded him. "Yellow: Y-E-_L_-_L_-O-W. Noodles: N-_O-O-_ all have double letters."

"Huh."

Then I heard a static-y noise on the walkie. "KC for base."

"Go for base."

"How's the picture in the basement?"

I looked at the monitor and saw the basement lit up in the green glow. "It's good."

"Okay. I'm coming back."

"Kay."

After that was ritual; now it was time to get the investigation started. KC and Jackie went to one of the rooms that was said to be haunted; I'm not really sure which one it was. So while they were doing that, Riley decided to start a conversation between the four of us.

"Did Arley tell you the rule?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"I knew she would." He smiled. "She cracks easy."

"I do _not_," I argued, and punched him in the shoulder.

"You do _too_."

"I can't believe it took me so long to figure out the rule," Zack said. "Now it's pretty obvious."

"I know," I said. "It's insanely hard to figure out, but when you know the rule you think, why didn't I figure this out earlier?"

"Jackie for base," came Jackie's voice on Riley's walkie. She sounded scared stiff.

"Go for base," Riley said.

"We need a digital camera out here _now_. I swear I just saw something white move across the wall opposite of us."


	6. Trouble in Room 5

"Arley, do you want to go?" Riley asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. Where's the camera?"

Sam passed me the digital camera, then smiled at me. "Good luck on your first sweep."

"Thanks."

The entire time I was walking to the room KC and Jackie were in, I was wondering about Sam. He was being really nice to me, but it was kinda weird. I mean, I don't really know him all that well, so why should he be so nice to me all of a sudden? It's weird.

"Here's the camera," I said, and held it out.

"Why don't you take the pictures while KC and I do call and response?" Jackie asked. "I think I saw the white figure over there." She pointed to the wall on my left.

I started out taking pictures along that wall, then I took a few more along the other walls because it really could've gone anywhere. Meanwhile, KC and Jackie asked the spirit what its name was or why it was still here. Personally, I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing call and response in there. I mean, we could be dealing with a spirit that's schizophrenic for all we know. But I'd asked God to keep the evil spirits away, so it couldn't be too bad if it was interacting with us.

"All right, Ar," Jackie said. "Let's go back."

I was surprised she referred to me by that nickname. Riley was the only one who called me "Ar" except for KC, and even then she's referred to me by that name only a couple of times. I didn't think Jackie even knew that nickname. Huh. Maybe I was closer to everyone than I thought.

The night went on like this: Riley and KC did a sweep, so me, Sam, and Zack made jokes about them liking each other while Jackie rolled her eyes at us. Zack and Jackie did a sweep, so Riley, Sam, KC, and I sat around and did nothing because we couldn't tease Zack and Jackie about liking each other. Then Sam asked me if I wanted to go to the fifth room on the second floor.

I don't know why nobody else went to the fifth room on the second floor, cause it had a lot of reports. Maybe they'd heard Sam talk about taking me there somehow. But it didn't matter, because I was on an actual sweep.

"Here we are," Sam said as we walked inside. "Cue the scary music."

I gave a small smile. "Yeah, really. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Nobody says 'heebie-jeebies' any more, Arley."

"I do."

The two of us walked around the room, exploring. I walked over to the window and looked out of it. Seeing the car outside was almost funny. If I had my facts straight, this place had been built in the 1800's. What did we, a bunch of teenage ghost hunters, look like to the people still stuck here? Did this place get a lot of investigators or only a few? Did they understand what we were doing here?

Then, I heard a loud scream. It hadn't come from this room, though-it had sounded like it came from a different room.

"Arley, did you hear that?" Sam asked.

"You heard that scream, too?" My eyes widened in disbelief. "No way. Should we call in to base camp?"

"Might as well," he answered. "Sam to base camp."

Silence.

"Sam to base camp."

Silence again.

I pulled out my walkie. "Riley, Zack, Jackie, or KC, if one if you guys don't respond _right now _I am going to give you _all _an earful. Do you hear me?"

Still more silence.

"I don't think they can hear us," I said to Sam. Then I sighed. "This is _so_ not good."


	7. Evidence

"Okay, remember when we first walked into the building and I heard a scream?" Jackie asked. When we all nodded, she said, "Check this out."

She pressed a button to make the voice-recorder-playback-thingy play, and the second she did so there was a scream that blasted loud and high through the computer speakers. It only lasted a second or two, but dang! Were the ghosts of this place trying to break our eardrums?!

Oh, wait. I should probably explain. After we realized the radios weren't working, Sam and I decided to do some call and response. Ten minutes after that, the radios started working again. We called back to base camp, then Riley suggested that we go home, which we did. Now we're looking over evidence.

"That's a scream," KC said simple. "I think it's credible."

I nodded. "Me, too."

Pretty much everybody agreed that that was credible, so we moved on to the next piece of evidence. Zack said he had caught what looked like an orb on the camera. So we looked on the screen, and sure enough, there was a little white ball that came down from the top end of the camera, floated in place for a few seconds, and then just slowly floated away.

"Well, one thing's for certain. It's not dust," Jackie said.

To everyone's surprise, Riley nodded. "Dust doesn't do that. Credible."

KC shot me a I-didn't-hear-what-I-thought-I-heard-did-I? expression on her face. I shot her a I-think-you-did-just-hear-what-you-thought-you-heard-because-I-heard-the-same-thing-and-if-we-didn't-hear-what-we-thought-we-heard-then-we're-both-hearing-things expression.

But hey, it's not like we didn't have a reason to be a little confused. I mean, Riley is the skeptic. Always has been, always will be. You need to prove _everything_ to him. I swear, there are some days when I can say, "Riley, the sky is blue," and he'd go outside to check if I was right.

"Hey Arley, did we get anything in the pictures you took?" Jackie asked.

I grinned. "Yep. Check it out."

I opened the envelope that I'd put the pictures in, selected two of them, and spread them out across the table for the whole team to see. One of the pictures was definitely credible, the other two I weren't so sure about. That's why I wanted the team to see all of them.

The first one was a picture of what looks like a white flash. But I think it could be credible for a few reasons. One: It's horizontal, not vertical, and two: I took a closer look at it and there are what look like wings spreading out on its sides.

The second one is a definitely a picture of an apparition. There was a white figure against the wall. The figure looked like a person-it was wearing pants, a shirt, a jacket, a pair of boots, and a hat (the figure is all in white; it took fifteen minutes of staring at the picture to figure that out), and it looks like it's walking one direction but its head is turned so that it's facing the camera. What's even creepier is that its eyes are fixed directly on the lens.


	8. The Return of Willie

"This one," Zack said, pointing to the picture of the apparition, "is definitely credible."

KC smiled nodded. "One hundred percent." Then she held up her hand. "Way, to go, Arley. You got a picture of an apparition."

I smiled and high-fived her. "Yep. But is the other one any good?"

Jackie narrowed her eyes at second picture. "I guess it could be a flash, but I swear there are _wings_ on its sides."

Oh, good. She saw them, too.

After a few minutes of arguing, it was eventually decided that both pictures were credible, earning me another high five from KC. Then, it came time for the verdict. Which was a no-brainer: haunted.

While Sam was putting the evidence online, there were three bangs that came from upstairs, my guess being the front door. Turns out I was right, because familiar voice shouted, "It's Willie!" Then there was the sound of the front door opening and continuous thuds on the steps leading to the basement.

"Hey," Willie said when she arrived. "What's up?"

No offense to Willie-I love the girl like a sister-but to me, she's always looked more like a really tall fifth grader than a fourteen-year-old girl. She has dirty blond hair cut off at the middle of her neck, freckles dotting across her cheekbones and above the bridge of her nose, skin that's about a shade tanner than mine, and warm brown eyes. I don't know why, but she just has this childish look to her that I can't really describe.

It was obvious she'd swim practice-she has practice from ten to eleven on a Saturday-just a while ago. Her hair was still wet, and you could see the straps of her purple and blue one piece bathing suit near her shoulders, far away from her purple spaghetti strap tank top. She also had on black shorts and yellow flip-flops.

"Hey Willie," Riley said. "We just got done going over evidence."

"Cool. How'd the investigation go?" she asked, sitting herself up on the table.

I knew it was pointless, but I couldn't help but lie to her to see if her freaky truth/lie distinction gift-and yes, I am calling it a gift-was still intact. "It wasn't that scary."

She narrowed her eyes. Apparently it was still intact. "Arley Alice Litman, why do you like to lie to me so much?"

"To see if you know," I replied. "And don't say my middle name! It sounds dorky, having a middle name and first name that start with the same letter."

"No it doesn't," she argued. "Your first name and middle name go together."

"No they don't," I insisted.

"Yes, they do. It rolls off the tongue quite naturally," she said in in impressive British accent. "Try it. Arley Alice, Arley Alice, Arley Alice."

"Okay, I think everyone gets it," I cut in, annoyed.

Zack smiled at her. "That British accent was good."

She smiled back at him. "Thanks, Zack."

Willie hung out with me, Riley, Jackie, Zack, KC and Sam for a few more minutes while we put away the hi-tech stuff. Afterwards, she suggested that the seven of us go upstairs and play Aggravation. We all agreed, since it was a pretty good idea.

"I'm tired of losing to you, Riley," she said as I was getting the wooden game board and the ratty blue blanket that came with it down from the top shelf of the coat closet.

He shrugged. "Too bad."

I set the board on the coffee table on top of the thin blanket and got out the marbles that Mom had painted herself. I handed the green ones to Riley, the purple ones to Willie, the blue ones to Sam, and kept the orange ones for myself.

"Bring it on," Willie said, and rolled the dice.


	9. YESYESYESYES!

The dice landed on the table, revealing a four. She sighed and handed the dice to me. I rolled and got a two. When I handed the dice to Sam, he got a five. Riley got a three, then Willie got a three, then I got a five, then Sam got a six. He moved his marble onto the starting space, then rolled again. This time it was a five. Once his marble was moved up five spaces, he handed the dice to Riley, who rolled a three, then reluctantly handed the dice to Willie. She rolled a one, shot a smug smile at Riley, moved her marble out, then handed the dice to me. I rolled a one, so I moved my marble out and handed the dice to Sam. He rolled a three, moved his marble forward,then handed it to Riley. He got a two.

"These dice hate me!" he exclaimed, half joking.

I smiled sweetly. "The dice don't hate you; The God of Board Games does."

Riley smiled back, then punched me in the shoulder.

"Ooh, Arley, better watch out," Jackie teased. "Riley's probably coming to get you."

"I am," he confirmed, and watched as Willie moved her marble up four spaces. "You better watch yourself, _little girl_."

I smiled. "Wow. You watched _Drake and Josh_ WAY too many times when it was still on TV."

KC smiled. "Yeah. I remember that too. I'd come over and he'd be sitting on the couch watching _Drake and Josh_."

He shrugged. "So I loved _Drake and Josh_. Big deal. Arley was obsessed with the American Girl stuff until she was twelve."

I figured this was the perfect opportunity to harass Riley. But then again, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I shrugged. "So I loved American Girl. Big deal. I think KC was obsessed with The Little Mermaid until she was eleven."

KC's cheeks got a little color to them, but hopefully I hadn't embarrassed her too much because she was laughing a little.

"Can we get on with the game?" Willie asked, impatient. "It's your turn, Arley Alice."

I groaned and took the dice from her. The dice revealed a six, so I moved another marble out and rolled again, getting a three. I moved my first marble (I think I'll call them Marble 1 and Marble 2) three spaces up. I handed the dice to Sam.

The game continued like that for about fifteen minutes. Riley aggravated Sam. But Sam never got the chance to avenge this, so he just simply took it out on Willie. Willie then aggravated Riley because she _was_ tired of losing to Riley. I could tell Riley was going to aggravate me, so I aggravated him before he could. He was _definitely_ after me now.

"I'm running," I said, and rolled the dice again because I had gotten a six. I prayed for a high number, like four or five.

Instead, I got a one.

"Not very fast," Riley said as Sam took the dice.

In the end, the winners were in this order: Sam, Willie, Riley, me.

"YES!" Willie yelled, and began to dance in our living room. "I didn't lose to Riley! And Arley lost to us all! YESYESYESYES!"


	10. My Marker is Faster Than Yours

**If you're wondering why it took me a long time to update, I got nothing. But I'm making this chapter longer, just for everyone who is currently reading this story. And please review. It helps my self-esteem lol :)**

I survived the rest of the school week, and now Christmas vacation was here. Jackie figured it was too cold to investigate for a while, so it looked like they were just going to hang out until it got warm enough to investigate again. I didn't know if those investigations would include me.

When I got home from school, Riley was in the living room playing Christmas carols on the piano. I'd always been extremely jealous of his musical talent. Mom had actually put us both in piano lessons, but I had failed miserably, so I quit so I wouldn't be wasting the teacher's time. Mom got very ticked, but that didn't matter since she gets ticked about a lot of things.

"Nice," I told him when he finished "Silent Night."

"Thanks. What are you eating?"

"Chocolate chip cookies," I said. But since my mouth was full of cookie, it sounded more like gibberish than actual words.

"Arley," he said, sounding like our dad whenever one of us does something wrong. "You better let me have one or risk exposure."

I shrugged. "Kay then. Here. Have a cookie." I picked up the one that looked like it had the least chocolate chips and tossed it to him.

He glared at me. "You gave me the one with the least chocolate chips."

"Funny, I sort of already realized that. You know, when I deliberately tossed it to you."

"Sarcastic little butthead," I heard him mutter.

I smiled and playfully socked him in the stomach. "Shut up."

"Hey, the new episode will be on tonight," he said, "and it's sort of an Othersiders tradition to watch it together and spend the night. Wanna join us?"

I've known of that tradition since The Othersiders were invented, so it was kinda insulting that he felt like he had to tell me about it. After all, I wasn't _stupid _or anything-I got two pictures of ghosts! Two freaking pictures!-so why did I have to have it explained to me? Then again, this was my first invite to an actual sleepover with the team, so maybe he told me about it so I'd know I was welcome this time.

"Can I invite Willie?"

He half-smiled. "I swear, that girl is like my second, less obnoxious younger sister. She spends a _lot_ of time with us."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

"Yes it's a yes?"

He nodded. "Yes it's a yes."

"Then sure."

So we secretly ate our cookies and then rearranged them on the counter to hide the evidence. Then I texted Willie her invitation and she came over a couple of hours later with her sleepover stuff. I set up a space for her in the living room, since the sleepover thing was always in there. Now all we had to do was wait for everyone else.

They were here at eight. Turns out that Zack was territorial of his spot in the living room, which Willie had. But Willie, stubborn as she is, merely stuck her tongue out at him when he demanded that she move. Eventually he gave up and moved to the side of the room opposite from her. Riley stuck close to us, probably to make sure that Zack didn't get up in the middle of the night and murder Willie for taking his spot.

By the time it came on at nine thirty, the seven of us were in our pajamas, eating popcorn and drinking Coke. Willie snickered when KC and Jackie screamed, then squeezed my elbow when I started walking to the room they were in. Luckily for me KC had switched the lights out in the room. I was blushing like crazy because my arms were shaking on screen. I prayed no one else noticed. But my prayer hadn't been answered because Sam said, very loudly, "Geez, Arley. Got a little scared, huh?"

"It was cold in there," I defended, trying to hold on to my ego. "You could practically hang meat in that hallway."

"Suuure," Jackie said. Then she held up her arms to block the pillow I had sent her way.

After the next commercial break was done, there was the time that Sam and me had gone to room five. It showed our locater beacons moving up the stairs and across the hallway to that room. The marker labeled "ARLEY" was several centimeters in front of the marker labeled "SAM." So I decided it was time for revenge.

"Sam, you're such a slowpoke."

He narrowed his eyes in a what-the-heck-is-she-talking-about? look. "What do you mean?"

"My marker is faster than yours. Your marker is a slowpoke."

"O...kay?"

"Just saying. You don't have to be a sore loser about it."

Oh yeah. Nobody messes with Arley Alice Litman.

Okay, I lied. _E__verybody_ messes with Arley Alice Litman.


	11. Christmas

**MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!**

**As my present to you guys, this chapter will be awesome :D**

I was the first one up the next morning. My digital watch bore the numbers 10:33, which meant that in a half hour, I could make a lot of noise to wake them all up. In the meantime, I raided the cookie container.

Jackie woke up a few minutes later. I handed her a cookie and told her my idea of waking everybody up with loud noise. She grinned deviously and nodded, since she had just taken a bite out of her cookie.

"Where do you keep all your pots and pans?" she whispered.

I tried to copy her grin. "Well well well. Aren't _you_ acting evil today?"

"I am," she said, and laughed. "You know what? Let's not wait. How 'bout we wake them up right now?"

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Jackie? Last time I checked, the real Jackie wasn't this evil."

"Jackie isn't here anymore," she said, trying to sound demonic.

"That was good. I can't do it."

I handed her a frying pan and the pot Mom cooks chili in, and I just got out two pots. We grinned at each other, then quietly snuck into the living room. Everybody was still asleep-I could see that, even though Willie had managed to somehow wrap her blanket around her head in her sleep. She never fails to confuse me...

Anyway, Jackie and I then proceeded to bang our noise instruments together and shout, "WAKE UP EVERYBODY!" as loud as we possibly could.

"Dang, you guys," Zack muttered, trying to shove his pillow over his head. "It's too early to do that."

"Zack, it's ten thirty," I pointed out.

"Exactly. Too early."

I gaped at him, even though it did no good considering he couldn't see me. "What time do you usually get up?"

"Whenever I feel like it. But I don't feel like it right now."

I rolled my eyes, set my pots on my sleeping bag, and picked up my pillow. Then I walked over to Zack, threw his pillow off his head, and began to smack him in the head with mine.

"Stop it!" he shouted, trying to block his face.

"Feel like getting up now?" I asked.

Riley, who had been watching from across the room, gave an exaggerated yawn and rolled his eyes. "Let me know when something interesting happens," he said as he walked away.

_*A week and two days later*_

"Here, KC, this one's for you," Riley said, and passed her a box wrapped in gold paper.

"Thanks," she said, and handed him his present as he handed her hers.

Yes, we were having the first Othersiders Christmas party, which I was happy to see I had been invited to. Willie wasn't here-she was spending Christmas in Cleveland with her relatives. If my math was right, Willie was probably two hours into the grueling five hour flight, listening to her iPod and holding her blue and green Vera Bradley backpack type thing in her lap with her present-a fifty dollar iTunes gift card-inside of it.

I smiled. Willie would surely love her present. She can't live without music.

"Arley!" Riley said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I said your name five times!"

"Sorry," I muttered.

KC shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Here, Arley, it's from me."

She held a small, square box wrapped in blue paper with brunette, bugle-playing angels on fluffy white clouds all over it. I handed her a silver-wrapped box, and we all exchanged presents from there. Then we all dug into them.

KC's present had turned out to be a pair of butterfly earrings and diamond studs (I'd gotten my earlobes pierced twice) and a silver hoop for my cartilage piercing.

Zack had given me-and everyone else-and LED flashlight. Jackie gently smacked him upside the head, but I didn't mind getting a flashlight. The funny thing was, that was the exact same thing I'd gotten him.

Sam had gotten me _The Summoning_ by Kelley Armstrong. I had borrowed it from the library and really enjoyed it, but I'd never told anybody that-not even my parents. So I guess Willie or Riley must've found out how much I'd liked it somehow.

Riley got me a Timex watch that had a built in timer so I could time my laps when cross country season rolled around.

Jackie explained she hadn't known what else to get me when I saw a journal and a set of ball point pens in the bag that she had put them in. I told her that it was okay; I wrote journal entries almost daily.

I got an LED flashlight for Zack, like I said previously; a silver charm bracelet with two charms for KC; a laptop case for Jackie; a new CD for Riley; and a pen for Sam. But the pen had a rubber lion on the top of it, and when you squeezed the lion's sides, its eyes popped out.

All in all, it was a good Christmas.


End file.
